What do you think is going to happen to our shipping on May 2?

[sin-n-dex]

So de minimis on China/Hong Kong made goods goes away May 2. If history is any lesson, there's going to be bedlam at the border.

I'm wondering what the shippers like Stallion and Chit Chats are going to do, while we are allowed to continue to ship non-China goods across the border, I'm expecting chaos while they're sorting all the packages to determine what can go, and what is subject to 145% tariffs (which no longer apply to electronics from what I read in the US forum).

With 145% tariffs, no one will be using services like Stallion and Chit Chats to send their items across duties paid, it would cost the seller money to sell the item with those types of tariffs. But it won't likely stop some people from trying to sneak their China items across under the guise of them being from a different COO.

There was talk a few weeks ago about needing manufacture name and address info for the shipments. That's going to cause chaos for those of us who ship vintage goods. Declaring it as "vintage" instead of providing a manufacturer was correct according to CBP, but whether or not that's accepted under the new rules is anyone's guess.

I think I'm going to have to go offline a few days before May 2 (yet again, for the fourth time) to wait and see what happens. There's no sense in continuing to sell if they just decide to treat all shipments as if they're Chinese (like I was told they were doing when the de minimis on China items first went away, February was it?) Stallion told me all my packages were going formal entry and tariffs were going to be charged back to my account even though I didn't ship anything made in China, they were treating all the packages as if they were made in China, then they repealed the rules and put de minimis back, and at that point my packages made it across the border (without tariffs).

It's just complete chaos, and this "wait 30 days" for things to happen and having to stop selling every 30 days to make sure we can comply with the new rules is exhausting.

For those of us who've decided to just ship Canada Post, I still think there's going to be bedlam at the border, significant delays in Canada Post packages, customers getting mad and filing INRs. I don't think shipping the items from Canada and letting the tariff be the buyer's problem is necessarily going to help escape the chaos that's pending. Plus the fact I think numerous packages will not be claimed due to tariffs. If the tracking is anything like the EU packages that are refused due to tariffs then a lot of customers will be entitled to refunds. Although I knew my EU package was refused, the integrated tracking didn't show what the carrier tracking showed me, and eBay forced me to refund the customer $50 because he didn't want to pay VAT on his import. I'm expecting with US tariffs to see a lot more of that noise.

C.

[cottagewoman]

My local cross border goes same day, so last ship day will be the 1st.

[sapphyres-designer-jewellery]

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@cottagewoman wrote:

My local cross border goes same day, so last ship day will be the 1st.

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Mine might do that (if shipped by a certain time, they've done it before due to tariffs).

To be safe I'll get items to them April 30.

C.

[fergua3]

I have the first US Customs info to report for May 2.  A small value package i sent to the US spent about 2 1/2 hours in Customs, according to the tracking data.   No indication if any fees or tariffs were assessed.  The buyer will no doubt let me know that....    COO was China.  I also put on the HS number (6 digit).

So on the first day of no deminimus there seems to be no backlog yet.  In fact it went through Customs  faster than any of the packages i've sent to the US this year.  Don't know if that is ominous or not (ie was it rejected?).

[cottagewoman]

I'm assuming this was via Canada Post?

[chicweb]

Here, in Canada, when there's fees, it's requested at the door (happened to me a few times) or by phone (happened to me too).

Have to get the credit card to get the item or it's returned.

I guess that's when you will know about it. 😉

[fergua3]

yes sent by CP.

On CP website if there are Customs fees owingi it shows them as soon as they are assessed by Customs.   I figured USPS would do the same but maybe not or perhaps only the recpiant can see them.

[jtg204]

Shipping via Tracked Packet USA...

My customs times this week were 37min and aprox 5 hours.

Our first package of concern arrived in US yesterday.  However it's turned out to be one where it gives no customs in/out statuses at all, so I don't know if it cleared yesterday or this morning when it scanned at a distribution.  Missing customs scans is not unusual, although it's normally the out of customs that is missing.

I've read conflicting things about USPS collections.  Some say they will get marked, and slips delivered to pickup at USPS, some say paper work gets attached to the package and buyer has to deal with paying it after, some say they collect on delivery and some say they don't have a process to do that.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@fergua3 wrote:

yes sent by CP.

On CP website if there are Customs fees owingi it shows them as soon as they are assessed by Customs.   I figured USPS would do the same but maybe not or perhaps only the recpiant can see them.

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@fergua3 

What will be super critical going forward is the ph. number attached to international orders are valid. Quite often they are not. eBay does little when it comes to verification. Couriers have been charging in advance since Covid. With CP in the past if there were duties owing it got carded with amount owing and you paid when you picked up.

USPS typically collects tariffs and other related fees at the time of delivery. If you don't pay for duties and taxes online in advance, the delivery agent can collect them when the package is delivered. This payment can be made via credit card, commercial account (for some businesses), or at the post office. 

[ricarmic]

@fergua3 I sent one out to the US today too - some China stamps. Value was $15. Thought it would be a good sized experiment as the maximum possible loss for me is manageable regardless what happens.

[femmefan1946]

I was very careful to mark the labels for today as COO USA (as appropriate).

Fingers crossed.

[dinomitesales]

Reports are starting to come in from cross-border shippers.

A truck from DYK successfully passed through the Niagara border this afternoon. But one of their trucks was refused entry at the Montana border crossing. According to them, customs officials were opening boxes and refusing things if they had ANY reference to China on it (although they do mention this level of inspection is unique to the Montana border crossing).

From them:
“For example, one package lists this at the back: Printed in the USA. Dice and condition markers made in the USA. Card sleeves made in China. From what the Country of origin rule is this should be a made in the USA product.” (It was a sealed box of Pokémon card product). 

[sin-n-dex]

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@dinomitesales wrote:

Reports are starting to come in from cross-border shippers.

A truck from DYK successfully passed through the Niagara border this afternoon. But one of their trucks was refused entry at the Montana border crossing. According to them, customs officials were opening boxes and refusing things if they had ANY reference to China on it (although they do mention this level of inspection is unique to the Montana border crossing).

From them:
“For example, one package lists this at the back: Printed in the USA. Dice and condition markers made in the USA. Card sleeves made in China. From what the Country of origin rule is this should be a made in the USA product.” (It was a sealed box of Pokémon card product). 

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On Stallion's website they're asking to have SKUs and products recorded (seems that only applies to China goods though, I did a test run last night to see if I could  mail a package and it gave me the regular Ground Advantage and US Economy options).

I did some research to get names and addresses of some of my biggest suppliers in case things are going in this direction where I need to record all my items (there's 11,000 items, and I'm waiting for a reply from Stallion if I can have one SKU for a Canadian Token and override the price each time one such item sells).

I found out that CHINA coins are manufactured in CANADA at the Royal Canadian Mint. (There's no specification of which coins these are, just that China is on the list of RCM countries they produce for, apparently they make coins for 73 countries, so there's a 35% chance coins I have are made in Canada). There is a website called Numista with much more information which will narrow down the mint of particular coins, so it's a good resource for me to find out who made the stuff I sell.

So isn't that funny an item from the ROYAL CANADIAN MINT made in Ottawa or Winnipeg might say CHINA on it???

Anyway thanks for the update, can you post the link to where you read this? I'd like to go read their blog if they're posting this publicly online.

C.

[dinomitesales]

DYK has been posting updates on their Facebook page, that’s where I’ve been getting information from them.

[femmefan1946]

@sin-n-dex 

isn't that funny an item from the ROYAL CANADIAN MINT made in Ottawa or Winnipeg might say CHINA on it???

That's the global market.

When the Government of China wants something to be trustworthy and more important, trusted, they don't make it domestically, but sub-contract to a Western /Canadian manufacturer.

The plethora of complaints about fake Chinese "Panda" coins is a case in point. And if the manufacturer is the Royal Mint of Canada, that would be a strong selling point, once the buyers /investors catch on.

Do the Chinese coins come in packaging that says Made in Canada?

[itolduandso]

But why would you even ship? What's the point? Isn't the buyer going to refuse the package if presented with a 145% tariff?

[sin-n-dex]

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@dinomitesales wrote:
DYK has been posting updates on their Facebook page, that’s where I’ve been getting information from them.

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Great, thanks! I went and took a look.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

@sin-n-dex 

isn't that funny an item from the ROYAL CANADIAN MINT made in Ottawa or Winnipeg might say CHINA on it???

That's the global market.

When the Government of China wants something to be trustworthy and more important, trusted, they don't make it domestically, but sub-contract to a Western /Canadian manufacturer.

The plethora of complaints about fake Chinese "Panda" coins is a case in point. And if the manufacturer is the Royal Mint of Canada, that would be a strong selling point, once the buyers /investors catch on.

Do the Chinese coins come in packaging that says Made in Canada?

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I'm not sure which coins are made at the mint, but I think the Pandas is likely.  I don't have any Pandas for sale (actually correction, I think there's a panda in my incoming box of stuff from last week). I don't think I'll list it though if the fact it says China is going to be such a problem. My dad pointed out the US customs guys who look at packages are not the brightest and won't get that the Mint makes a bunch of stuff for other countries.

Numista will probably confirm which coins are made where (if the person putting the coin in their database knows the answer). I looked up a few that are on my Canadian store to see if they were made in Canada (apparently we make Ukrainian coins, but not the ones I have for sale).

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@itolduandso wrote:

But why would you even ship? What's the point? Isn't the buyer going to refuse the package if presented with a 145% tariff?

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One of the cross border shippers (can't remember if it's Stallion or Chit Chats) said USPS doesn't have a mechanism for collecting tariffs at this point and if shipped via Canada Post it might be delivered without tariffs.

C.

[recped]

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One of the cross border shippers (can't remember if it's Stallion or Chit Chats) said USPS doesn't have a mechanism for collecting tariffs at this point and if shipped via Canada Post it might be delivered without tariffs.

C.

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I call foul on that claim that USPS doesn't have a mechanism, they have always (at least since the mid 70's and probably MUCH longer) had a published fee for collecting duty on shipments sent through the postal system. The current fee $5.35, It's obvious that import duties have charged and collected for incoming postal shipment especially as it's only been a "recent" development that there are so many private carriers. Also keep in mind that it was less than 10 years since the US de minimis exemption was raised for US$200 to US$800.

While the Mango Man likes to claim that the US has had 0% percent import duties that is a complete lie, the US duty rate have been low (compared to Canada for example) but they have not beeen zero. The USPS system to collect is virtually identical to the Canadian system and also the same with virtually every country on the planet.

https://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immc7_002.htm

This section of the USPS International Mail Manual has been in place for decades, it's NOT new.

You can read about the history, the Tarrif Act of 1930 and the introduction of the de minimis exemption in 1938.

https://customscity.com/from-past-to-present-a-historical-overview-of-section-321-and-its-influence-...

[itolduandso]

Beautiful old laws. All vintage is the best.